Trying to make sense of the Grace Poe Llamanzares case

How to save Sen. Grace Poe Llamanzares from being disqualified as a presidential candidate in the May 2016 elections has prompted her most zealous, though not necessarily the most capable, supporters to circle their wagons around her. They are trying to put up a defense, although based on fallacious assumptions and spotty calculations, and organized outside the legal process taking place in the Commission on Elections.

Four petitions are seeking her disqualification or the cancellation of her certificate of candidacy on two constitutional grounds. First, she is not a natural-born Filipino, which means a citizen from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect her citizenship. Second, on the day of the 2016 election she will not have resided in the country for 10 years, as required by the Constitution.